praestigiator

Forms

praestīgiātor m (genitive praestīgiātōris); third declension^[1][2] The older spelling praestrīgiātor is found in Plautus.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin praestīgiae (“tricks, illusions”) + -tor.^[1][2] The TLL stresses that it is made from the noun, not from a verb.^[4] De Vaan puts the older form praestrīgiae with the compounds of stringō (“to tie, tighten”), the usual form having lost its second ⟨r⟩ by dissimilation;^[5] he traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *strengh-e/o- (“to draw, tie”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the first to use it: in the Poenulus a character is called a fine trickster.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus and later authors it is a deceiver or impostor.^[1][2] Seneca uses it of a juggler with his cups and pebbles, whose very deceit he finds delightful, and Apuleius sets the juggler who steals beside the actor who gestures.^[1] Prudentius applies it to the devil.^[2][3] It survives in Italian prestigiatore, a conjurer.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a trickster in the Poenulus and the Aulularia.^[2][3][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a juggler.^[1][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius mentions the juggler who steals.^[1][7]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius calls the devil a deceiver.^[2][3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trickster, impostor, deceiver.^[1][2]
2. A juggler, conjurer (as an entertainer).^[1][2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The devil, as the great deceiver.^[2][3]

Usage notes

Varro counts praestigiator among the words named from a skill.^[1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de